On Wednesday, we discussed how adultery and a fault divorce can impact the way that a judge in Texas splits your marital estate between you and your spouse. If you are able to prove adultery by your spouse, this could result in a more favorable property settlement for you, but the ultimate split of your property depends on the judge handling your case. The other important area in divorce law that adultery can impact is child custody. The impact of adultery on child custody rulings Again, the precise impact depends on the preferences of your judge and the facts of the adultery, but judges will generally prefer to award custody to the spouse who did not commit adultery. The important factor is often the degree to which the spouse committing adultery exposed the children to the affair. If you can show that your spouse had other partners around your children, your case for custody will be stronger than your spouse’s. Likewise, you improve your chances if you can show that your spouse used family money to fund his or her adultery. On the other hand, in the absence of some impact of the adultery on your and your spouse’s children,…
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Texas offers both no-fault divorces and fault divorces. The majority of divorces are no-fault ones where two spouses simply state in their divorce petition that they have irreconcilable differences and are unable to continue on in the marriage (the official legal term is “insupportability” in Texas). As we discussed Monday, all states today offer no-fault divorces, but in many, including Texas, divorce where one spouse blames the other, a fault divorce, is still an option that can have different consequences from those of a no-fault divorce. Proving fault during your divorce case The grounds in Texas for a fault divorce are adultery, cruel treatment, abandonment, incarceration, confinement to a mental hospital, or living apart for at least three years. As you might expect, if you allege fault when you file for divorce, your case will likely go much less than smoothly than if you and your spouse filed for a no-fault divorce. This is because you have to prove the fault in court. Consider the case of having to prove adultery on the part of your spouse. You need to have more than suspicions or clues of adultery because you will have to convince a judge that your spouse actually…
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Although it is often a combination of factors that leads to divorce, several often come up when asking couples why they decided to end their relationship. These factors include the following: Communication problems Financial issues Infidelity Substance abuse problems Intimacy problems Mid-life crises Of course, many of the factors blend into one another. For example, communication problems between spouses tend to make their financial life worse, since finances have such a big impact on how the couple lives their lives. The reason for the divorce is generally not so important today, but spouses still have the option of proving fault if they opt for a fault divorce. Divorce – does fault matter? These days, fault does not usually matter, but this is a relatively new development in family law. Prior to the 1970s, when a couple divorced, one spouse had to allege fault on the part of the other spouse – the commission of a crime or an act of adultery, for instance. These fault requirements often made divorce difficult, as it was subject to strict evidentiary requirements. In the absence of any evidence of fault, a couple’s only recourse was to separate and remain unable to legally remarry. Today,…
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The headlines may not make it appear that way, but most people want their divorce to go as smoothly as possible. The worst divorces – particularly the celebrity kind that we are often privy to – seem to result in lose-lose situations. The spouses end up exhausted and bitter. Substantial sums of money change hands. Meanwhile, the children are caught in the middle. A fair question then that many divorcing for the first time ask is: how can I avoid a contested divorce? Avoiding a contested divorce is up to the two spouses. Once divorce proceedings have begun, this is a sign that the two spouses consider their marriage over, and their priority should be on moving on as smoothly as possible and providing the best possible environment for their children, if they have any. Work with your attorney, your spouse and your spouse’s attorney early in the process on the big issues of the divorce – property settlement, child support and spousal support. The more you and your spouse work together, the less likely you are to surprise each other. Surprises resulting from a lack of communication can push one side into contesting the divorce. An uncontested divorce has…
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